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Edo'sero
Edo'sero are a spacefaring race of plant-based humanoids. History The edo'sero are the result of an isolated human colony forming a symbiosis with the native plant life of their world after a natural disaster destroyed most of their infrastructure; forcing the colonists to adopt a more primitive lifestyle. Eventually they recovered and re-established a spacefaring civilization, but not before their biology, outlook, and culture had been drastically modified. Biology Anatomy External Edo'sero are generally humanoid in form and appearance, with a few differences. Their face lacks visible eyes and is instead smooth where eye sockets should be; this is in fact due to a fleshy skin overtop of the sockets which acts like a one-way mirror, allowing the edo'sero to see out but both obscuring and protecting their eyes. While they closely resemble humans from the waist up, below that it shifts and begins to become more obviously plant-like. Their legs fuse at the knees into a thick, powerful stalk which sprouts numerous wide leaves and eventually forms into a mass of vines and roots which allows for locomotion. It also splits and forms a longer stalk ending in a brightly-coloured pod resembling a toothy Venus fly-trap. Besides these two obvious traits, Edo'sero are otherwise identical in appearance to humans save for their green skin and a few thorny growths along their body. Internal The plant-based nature of the edo'sero becomes fully obvious upon examining their internal structure. While they do have a skeleton it is composed of sturdy wood, and their muscles, fat, and skin are all replaced with floral substitutes. Internal organs are often simplified or non-existent compared to a human; edo'sero lack a digestive tract, their heart and lungs are merely massive pumps for the sap-like blood that runs through their veins, and they lack any defined filtering mechanism. The only "sophisticated" organs in their body are the reproductive organs and the nervous system. In fact, the edo'sero nervous system is even more complex than the human one, granting them nearly complete control of their bodies. Diet Edo'sero can feed themselves through two methods; by utilizing photosynthesis and rooting into the ground to obtain nutrients or by actively ingesting prey. The later method is the quicker one, and as such is more common. The Venus fly-trap that sprouts from their stalk is fully mobile and serves as their feeding apparatus. Using a prehensile, barbed tongue they can catch prey and swallow it. The inside of the pod is effectively one large stomach and can quickly break down food with powerful digestive acids, which can also be weaponized if needed by spitting them at an enemy. Life cycle Edo'sero retain a distinct male and female gender, distinguished both by the usual human characteristics (which are now vestigial) and by a plant-based reproductive system. Every year edo'sero sprout large, brightly coloured flowers from their backs. Male flowers release feathery pollen spores which the female flowers collect. After collecting pollen, the female flower generates a number of large, hard-shelled seeds which will gestate and eventually "hatch" into new edo'sero. Edo'sero never stop growing, and can reach truly gargantuan sizes. However, the larger an edo'sero grows the more nutrients it requires to sustain itself. Combined with the balance between photosythesis and gathering nutrients from their roots versus eating food, the larger an edo'sero grows the less active it becomes; the "effective maximum" size of an active edo'sero is about 18 metres tall, past which they will have to start becoming less and less active and relying on rooting to sustain themselves. History The edo'sero are the result of an isolated human colony forming a symbiosis with the native plant life of their world after a natural disaster destroyed most of their infrastructure; forcing the colonists to adopt a more primitive lifestyle. Eventually they recovered and re-established a spacefaring civilization, but not before their biology, outlook, and culture had been drastically modified. Culture Technology Category:Species Category:Science Fiction